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Non-Essential Worker Pete Buttigieg Secretly Was on Paid Paternity Leave Since August and No One Noticed

Non-Essential Worker Pete Buttigieg Secretly Was on Paid Paternity Leave Since August and No One Noticed

“While U.S. ports faced anchor-to-anchor traffic and Congress nearly melted down over the president’s infrastructure bill in recent weeks, the usually omnipresent Transportation secretary was lying low.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been on paternity leave since August and no one seemed to notice until the country found itself in a new crisis involving clogged ports and empty store shelves.

It’s very nice that Buttigieg and his husband have adopted two infants, but you have to wonder why he has been secretly on leave for so long, especially in light of this new problem.

From Politico:

Can Pete Buttigieg have it all?

PETE BUTTIGIEG has been MIA.

While U.S. ports faced anchor-to-anchor traffic and Congress nearly melted down over the president’s infrastructure bill in recent weeks, the usually omnipresent Transportation secretary was lying low.

One of the White House’s go-to communicators didn’t appear on TV. He was absent on Capitol Hill during the negotiations over the bill he had been previously helping sell to different members of Congress. Conservative critics tried (unsuccessfully) to get #WheresPete to trend and Fox News ran a story on October 4 with the headline: “Buttigieg quiet on growing port congestion as shipping concerns build ahead of holidays.”

They didn’t previously announce it, but Buttigieg’s office told West Wing Playbook that the secretary has actually been on paid leave since mid-August to spend time with his husband, Chasten, and their two newborn babies.

“For the first four weeks, he was mostly offline except for major agency decisions and matters that could not be delegated,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation. “He has been ramping up activities since then.” As he does that, Buttigieg will “continue to take some time over the coming weeks to support his husband and take care of his new children,” the spokesperson added.

The news garnered a lot of criticism on Twitter:

Buttigieg’s ability to serve in this role is also being questioned.

Joe Concha writes at The Hill:

Amateur hour: Pete Buttigieg’s inexperience exposed as supply chain breaks down

Three years ago, the only people who’d ever heard of Pete Buttigieg were likely to be residents of South Bend, Ind., the town of 103,000 people where he served as mayor.

South Bend is home to Notre Dame University. It has a bus station with a fleet of 60 buses, a small train station and a small regional airport. So, who better for Team Biden to nominate as secretary of the Department of Transportation, which employs more than 58,000 employees – more than half the population of South Bend – and has a budget of $87 billion?

After a quiet first nine months in office, the former mayor has his first crisis on his hands: a massive supply-chain breakdown exploding across the country that will impact every American, particularly the lower and middle classes.

It’s not like we weren’t warned.

Buttigieg looks like he is in over his head. Unfortunately, it’s the American people who will suffer as a result.

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Comments

Welp, with the logistical slowdown around the nation, that leaves me with nothing to do!

Might as well stay home until this all blows over.

    henrybowman in reply to SeiteiSouther. | October 15, 2021 at 11:13 am

    Yup. “The adults are back in charge now.”
    Speaking of which, John Hinckley is an adult now…. and the BATF still needs a director.
    Shall I get him on the line for you, Joe?

Maybe he would not take the shot?

Thousands of couples have been waiting forever to adopt just one healthy infant.
The gay connected get two.
We keep getting slapped in the face with evidence of the Us vs Them divide.

I don’t know that he can change the perverse incentives that are blocking distribution networks. That’s Biden.

I am ordering Christmas gifts for relatives in Hawaii and being provided delivery dates of mid-November by companies that use Fed-Ex…uuuggh.

What a dilemma… do something, or anything and he harms the environment.
Can’t do that!

Seriously though, so what if the ports stay open 24/7. Got enough truck drivers?

Limited truck driver, watch their rat-per-mile increase.

Fuel prices going up? Those trucks don’t run on solar power, so another increase to shipping costs.

More costs for the consumer to carry.

Shades of Nero?

Putting a smarty-pants mayor with an *ahem* “male partner,* who couldn’t even fix the pot holes in the streets of his mid-size Indiana town, in charge of DoT?

Yeah, we all knew that was gonna work out fine. (*Seinfeld eye roll*)

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to MarkJ. | October 15, 2021 at 11:49 am

    I’m absolutely sure than an incompetent pretty-boy, who knows nothing about transportation – or much of anything else – would be FAR more qualified if he were heterosexual.

You have to ask the Question that Dare Not Speak Its Name.
If Pete WERE in the office, working, would he just be making things worse?

Poor kids

USA is becoming a bad joke.

Buttigieg should resign. or be removed
Austin should resign or be removed
Milley should resign or be removed
Garland should resign or be removed

These people are criminally incompetent and/or political hacks

    DaddyO in reply to Ben Kent. | October 15, 2021 at 12:37 pm

    That’s because they make SlowJoe look like the smart guy in the room.

    Stuytown in reply to Ben Kent. | October 15, 2021 at 4:41 pm

    Biden, Harris, Sullivan and Blinken, too. That’s the problem. There is literally no one competent to serve.

    Massinsanity in reply to Ben Kent. | October 15, 2021 at 10:50 pm

    Milley should be dishonorably discharged and live out his life in shame

      Milwaukee in reply to Massinsanity. | October 16, 2021 at 8:44 pm

      “Milley should be dishonorably discharged and live out his life in shame”

      That requires prayers, as only God has the power to change his heart. Shame is not possible for the leftist. They may become bitter and grow in hardness of heart. Shame requires understanding of right and wrong and a developed conscience.

Probably a good thing he was absent – less likely to make it worse!

I wonder if the liberals who publicly fawn over these two bent dudes’ sick imitation of marriage and parenthood privately want to puke their guts up at the thought of it, just like the rest of us.

Just remember that 36 repubs voted to confirm him for that position
here is the list that voted not to confirm this unqualified person

Blackburn (R-TN)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Cotton (R-AR)
Cruz (R-TX)
Hagerty (R-TN)
Hawley (R-MO)
Lankford (R-OK)
Marshall (R-KS)
Rubio (R-FL)
Scott (R-FL)
Scott (R-SC)
Shelby (R-AL)
Tuberville (R-AL)

Toomey did not vote

If he was so fucking unqualified then maybe the fucking RINOs shouldn’t have voted him in 86-13.

You don’t get to vote him in by a massive margin then whine that he’s ‘unqualified’, jackasses.

    henrybowman in reply to Olinser. | October 15, 2021 at 3:03 pm

    Unlike, say, Secretary of State, Transportation is one of those NKOTB positions that America did just fine without for the first 200 years. One would suspect it’s one of those sinecure positions that you could safely put in the hands of a Curly Howard, like Ambassador to Lichtenstein.

    Its not clear that the problem here is even his competence, when the high level problem is that he just hasn’t been showing up to work at all (while receiving full pay). It’s hard to pass or fail a performance report when there has never been any performance to report.

      The Friendly Grizzly in reply to henrybowman. | October 15, 2021 at 3:17 pm

      If we ever have the revolution, violent or otherwise, the country needs, I’m hoping we can return to a constitutional basis of government. Go down the list of all of these agencies clear them out. Every last single one of them. Give the people there in 30 minutes to clean out their desks. I’m feeling terrible, so yes what’s provide them in the boxes and tape for no charge.

        If I could have my wish it would be to erase all the laws on the books and start with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I would dissolve all non-essential “spook” agencies and other deep-state cruft. And I would add 2 amendments – one would be Term Limits and the other would tie Congress’ salaries to cost of living increases and no lifetime benefits.

          henrybowman in reply to WestRock. | October 16, 2021 at 5:38 am

          The amendments the Constitution needs first is to specify mandatory PENALTIES for government officeholders and employees who break any of its limitations or guarantees.

          Did you ever notice how none of the laws that “protect citizens from the government” ever come with specified penalties; whereas all the laws that citizens can break always do? Check it out, starting with the old “Privacy Bill.” Know what the penalty is on that one? “A citizen has the right to sue the violator, with his own money.” And the violator has the right to defend themselves with all the tax money they can shovel from the slushpile. Wow, that there’s some protection. Same with the Spam laws.

    CapeBuffalo in reply to Olinser. | October 16, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    They all knew that when it comes their turn to vote in useless Republicans to cabinet and high positions the Dems won’t fight them because this is how the swamp renews itself, one load of shit on top of another

    diver64 in reply to Olinser. | October 17, 2021 at 1:21 pm

    There is a long standing tradition that a President is given great leeway in appointing his Cabinet or Ambassadors unless they are corrupt or very unfit for the position. As far as I can tell, Butageigerguy isn’t corrupt just inexperienced and incompetent.

So what kind of leave is he using? Do appointees get special leave?

The paternity leave put into effect last year for federal employees can’t be used until you have worked for at least one year.

Curious – how should supply chain problem be fixed?

Change Hour of Service requirements for truck drivers (is it worth sacrificing safety protocols?)

Offer incentives so there are more team drivers on the road?

Offer tax incentives to support overtime pay to the dock workers?

Create policies which prioritize what leaves the docks?

How about we just own up and admit we created the problem (stay-home mandates, moving manufacturing overseas, disincentivizing work with free money, and management adopting “just—in-time” mentality for ordering supplies instead of having the spend capital storing goods in warehouses).

We created it… chances are attempts to “fix” will have unintended consequence. Best to let free-market solve it. I stuck waiting for Enrollment Guides – solution: download electronic version. My neighbor works on appliances – he finds replacement electronics via salvage.

Not saying every solution is going to be easy to find, but I definitely trust ingenuity over bureaucracy.

    geronl in reply to Doc-Wahala. | October 15, 2021 at 1:30 pm

    California also has a law that all the trucks used be newer than 2011, might have something to do with it a little.

    buck61 in reply to Doc-Wahala. | October 15, 2021 at 2:23 pm

    does the government have the staffing needed at the ports, the manifests have to be processed and cleared, are they going to stop inspecting random containers for drugs and contraband, are they going to reduce the numbers of containers run through the xray machines?

    Didn’t CA also passed the bill that limits independent contractors? Many truck drivers are independent.

    Don’t forget that during the shut-downs, many vo-tech schools also shut down, so the truck driving training stopped. Do we have enough replacement drivers for those who retired during C-19?

    You know that Biden hasn’t been on a road at night – I remember the interstates being crowded with the semis at night and don’t get in their way! These guys also have a problem if the distribution center is closed or has a limited staff. So, the congestion is all the way through the system, not just at the ports.

Here is the Biden Administration plan (which in reality is the cause rather than the solution):

1. Reduce American manufacturing.
2. Import more goods from China
3. Reduce American oil production
4. Import more oil from Saudi Arabia
5. Erect more barriers to keep Americans from working
6. Bring in more illegal aliens to take over American jobs
7. Tell news media to report that he’s doing a good job.
8. New media reports “Biden is doing a great job! Stuff is getting better all the time.”

This guy Butthead is REALLY, REALLY an incompetent clown.

REALLY.

He’s even less useful than Kamala Harris, which is a very damning statement.

If we didn’t miss him, get rid of him!

I can’t imagine any CEO or any C level at any company large or small taking 2 months off for paternity leave. Anything more than a week is unheard of. This is a complete joke.

Aaaawwwwwwww, how thweet…
Joking askide, we have two infants who will grow up not knowing a model of female behavior.

    CapeBuffalo in reply to Kepha H. | October 16, 2021 at 6:03 pm

    Does it really matter now that gender is fluid and men can chest feed, among other things.
    We live in a wonderful world……

    of fantasy

Steven Brizel | October 16, 2021 at 9:56 pm

Tucker Carlson had a very sharp comment about this instance of parental leave

We need to be very careful here. In a private company or firm, nobody makes nasty remarks about an executive who takes paid paternity or maternity leave. Why should a double standard apply? When a firm hires someone of child-rearing age, there is always the chance that new members of the family will arrive. If Congress enacts a family leave policy, then it should apply to all, even Cabinet members. To me, it is just like giving executives paid vacation days. The theory is that any staff member’s performance is better overall if they get some time off from the job. I suspect that this is particularly true of people holding high-pressure jobs.